icon tutorial (ask the maker)
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Maker 2.0 by firstillusion - thank you for asking ♥
Ask the Maker 2.0 || Icon Tutorial
going from
to
Program used: Photoshop CS5
Difficulty: Intermediate - some basic knowledge about how the different tools work and what they generally do might be required
Overview:
· These steps contain the use of layer masks; in case you don't know how to do them, you might want to have a look here.
Note: Some of the steps here are actually a little contradicting; I changed my mind about the coloring of this icon somewhere in the middle of the process, so the whole part from step 10 to 15 might seem a little useless, but it's what I did. I don't want to be hold responsible for any upcoming frustrations while following this, so I thought I'd better warn right here and now. ;)
Images used (original size, very large): 1
I have the german version of Photoshop, so the screencaptures of my settings are all german, too; if you are unsure about anything, just ask and I'll look up the translation for you.
1. Levels
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Levels
The first step I always do, no matter what kind of image I am working on, is fixing the contrast in my image with a Levels layer. I did this on the original sized image here, without any resizing beforehand.
In the Levels dialogue, I pulled the right slider a little further to the left, just to where the black histogram mountain begins; this will make the lighter areas of my image a little brighter. The left slider does not need any adjustments for this picture.
2. Channel Mixer
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Channel Mixer
The image did not have a lot of color in it, so in the next step I added a lot of saturation to help me out with that. I used a Channel Mixer layer with the settings below, the blending mode of this layer was then set to saturation and the opacity left at 100%.
3. Crop and Resize
e.g. Image → Image Size, Tools palette → Crop-Tool, ...
Satisfied for the moment, I resized my image and tried to find a suitable crop for my icon.
My own resizing method is a little complicated, it recently has become even more so since I have started to resize things outside of Photoshop, but you can just use whichever method you prefer here. I'm still going to write what I did for this image:
I created a new copy layer by pressing Ctrl → Alt → Shift → E, then I opened up a new empty 100x100 pixel canvas and dragged this copy layer to the new canvas. There, I converted the layer into a Smart Object (Layer → Smart Objects → Convert to Smart Object) and used Free Transform (Ctrl → T) to play around with the size and crop until I found something that I liked.
I looked up the dimensions of the Smart Object layer and resized the whole image from the previous document accordingly by going to Image → Image Size, using bicubic as interpolation method. Then I dragged the copy layer, which now has the right size, from this document into my 100x100 pixel canvas again and deleted the layer with the Smart Object there. (As I said, it's complicated. ;))
The larger document with the original screencap is usually closed without saving then - this is the reason why sometimes some of the first steps are missing in my psd files.
Now, this is what I finally came up with in the end:
4. Color Balance 1
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Color Balance
Now it was time to start working on the coloring. And this was where I couldn't make up my mind, so from now on chaos ensues. I'm just saying it again, so you are thoroughly warned. ;)
First, to add some general color into my image, I used a Color Balance layer and increased the warmer colors in the midtones section by adding some red, green and yellow to them.
For those who have seen my last guide on my icon making process: it's the same principle as I use with the Curves layer there.
5. Photofilter
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Photofilter
I still wanted to make the colors a little warmer, so I added a Photofilter layer with an orange-y color and a density of 25%, which adds a very subtle orange hue to my icon.
6. Color Balance 2
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Color Balance
Now, to disprove everything that I just said about adding warmer colors, I decided to make the coloring a little less yellow - especially his face looked a little sick the way it was. All those warmer colors in the midtones still have their purpose, though. So I added another Color Balance layer, but this time I wanted to change the lighter tones of my image only, so I chose the highlights section and increased the blue value there until the skin color looked a little more healthy and I was a lot more satisfied with the result.
7. Soft Light Layer
Layer → Duplicate Layer
Since the icon was still looking a little flat, I wanted to add some more contrast to it. To do this, I went back to the very first layer in my layer palette (it's actually the one from step 3 where I cropped my image), duplicated this layer and dragged it on top of all the other layers. Then I set the blending mode of it to soft light and the opacity to 70%.
8. Color Fill
Layer → New Fill Layer → Solid Color
The icon was a little dark now, so I wanted to brighten things up. For this, I used a Color Fill layer with a soft peachy color and set the blending mode to soft light. The opacity was left at 100%.
9. Gradient 1
Layer → New Fill Layer → Gradient
I still wasn't satisfied with the coloring, so I started to experiment with gradients a little. I always do this by testing out various selfmade gradients that I have saved in my presets, using the soft light blending mode, and see what my image might benefit from. Here, I finally settled for a greenish-to-transparent gradient set to soft light and at 100% opacity, which mostly added some green to the right side of the icon while not changing the color of his face all too much.
10. Gradient 2
Layer → New Fill Layer → Gradient
Gradients often come in pairs for me, so I added just another one. This time I chose a blue gradient, going from dark blue to middle blue to light blue, set the blending mode again to soft light and left the opacity at 100%. (And there goes my carefully adjusted skin color...)
11. Color Balance 3
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Color Balance
It was not yet quite what I wanted but didn't seem too bad either, so I added another Color Balance layer and tried to improve things.
After that last gradient I used, I had some kind of blue/cyan/green'ish coloring in mind (which is more or less the exact opposite from what I ended up with in the end). I increased the colder tones, cyan and blue plus a little green, in the shadows to make them a little deeper and then balanced things out in the highlights by adding some red and yellow there.
12. Selective Color
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Selective Color
I felt like I was on to something, so I grabbed a Selective Color layer and fiddled around a bit, ending with the settings below. I wanted to make the red a little stronger and warmer, and also enhance the blue and cyan some more, so I worked in the respective channels for these colors.
13. Multiply/Screen/Softlight
Using the Color Fill and Gradient layers in steps 8-10 made the icon lose some of its contrast, so I needed to bring it back again. This time, I made a copy layer ('stamp layer') of everything by pressing Ctrl → Alt → Shift → E and then duplicated this layer two more times. The first one of these three layers was set to multiply and 54% opacity, the second one to screen, 30%, and the third one finally to soft light, 54%.
I could also have used just a single Soft Light layer, but the combination of Multiply/Screen/Soft Light can give some more depth to the image, so I went this more complicated way instead. The opacity is always adjusted individually, the Multiply and Soft Light layer don't have to be all the same like here; the Screen layer will usually always be lower then the other two, though.
14. Texture
I wanted to give some more structure to the background, so I chose a texture (by midnight_road), desaturated it (Image → Adjustments → Desaturate) and placed it on top of my icon.
desaturate →
I set the blending mode to screen and lowered the opacity to 35%. Then I duplicated this layer and set the blending mode of this duplicate to soft light and 100% - I often use this combination of b/w textures set to first screen and then soft light.
The texture was partly covering the face now, which I did not want, so I used a layer mask on both texture layers and masked this area out.
← layer mask, used on both texture layers
15. Color Balance 4
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Color Balance
This finally was the point where I screwed my whole blueish/cyanish coloring business and went a completely different route. I added another Color Balance layer and changed the colors in the shadows to warmer hues again, by adding a lot of red, magenta and yellow.
I wanted the effect of this to be even stronger, so I duplicated this layer one time. This made his face a bit too red, so I used a layer mask to mask this part out a bit.
after the first Color Balance layer
after the second Color Balance layer, using a layer mask
16. Channel Mixer 2
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Channel Mixer
And finally, I was almost satisfied with everything. I still felt the icon needed a little bit more saturation, though, so I added another Channel Mixer layer with the same settings as in step 2 and set the opacity to 20%. The layer mode was set to saturation.
17. Enhance eye color
Tools palette → Brush tool
Almost done! The one thing left was that I wanted the eye color stand out a tad more, so I created a new, empty layer on top of everything, grabbed the Brush tool, picked a nice and deep blue color and painted carefully over the iris of his eye. Then I set this layer to soft light, 100%.
The eye was still a little too dark, so I duplicated this layer, pulled the duplicate below the soft light layer and set it to screen, 100%.
18. Sharpening
Filter → Other → High Pass
For sharpening, I generally use either the Unsharp Mask, Smart Sharpening or High Pass filter - I don't have any particular reasons for chosing one or the other, I just go to whichever is the first one that comes to my mind, really.
I have also recently taken to sharpen the final png file directly instead of the psd, because creating the png sometimes seems to blur things again. The drawback with that is that I have to guess a little about what I did for this particular icon, but I am fairly sure that I used the High Pass filter method here.
So, assuming that I did, I created another copy layer by pressing Ctrl → Alt → Shift → E, then I went to the High Pass filter and used a radius of 0.3 (this is my standard setting, I rarely if ever change it). I set the blending mode of this layer to soft light and lowered the opacity of it - I don't know the exact percentage, but I suppose it must have been something around 50-60% here.
And that's all. Don't hesitate to call me out on any potential mistakes and ask if you have any further questions. :)
Ask the Maker 2.0 || Icon Tutorial
going from
to
Program used: Photoshop CS5
Difficulty: Intermediate - some basic knowledge about how the different tools work and what they generally do might be required
Overview:
- Levels
- Channel Mixer
- Crop & Resize
- Color Balance
- Photofilter
- Color Balance
- Soft Light
- Color Fill
- Gradient
- Gradient
- Color Balance
- Selective Color
- Multiply/Screen/Soft Light
- Texture ·
- Color Balance ·
- Channel Mixer
- Enhance Eye Color
- Sharpen
- Layer Palette (not containing layers from step 1 and 2)
· These steps contain the use of layer masks; in case you don't know how to do them, you might want to have a look here.
Note: Some of the steps here are actually a little contradicting; I changed my mind about the coloring of this icon somewhere in the middle of the process, so the whole part from step 10 to 15 might seem a little useless, but it's what I did. I don't want to be hold responsible for any upcoming frustrations while following this, so I thought I'd better warn right here and now. ;)
Images used (original size, very large): 1
I have the german version of Photoshop, so the screencaptures of my settings are all german, too; if you are unsure about anything, just ask and I'll look up the translation for you.
1. Levels
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Levels
The first step I always do, no matter what kind of image I am working on, is fixing the contrast in my image with a Levels layer. I did this on the original sized image here, without any resizing beforehand.
In the Levels dialogue, I pulled the right slider a little further to the left, just to where the black histogram mountain begins; this will make the lighter areas of my image a little brighter. The left slider does not need any adjustments for this picture.
2. Channel Mixer
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Channel Mixer
The image did not have a lot of color in it, so in the next step I added a lot of saturation to help me out with that. I used a Channel Mixer layer with the settings below, the blending mode of this layer was then set to saturation and the opacity left at 100%.
3. Crop and Resize
e.g. Image → Image Size, Tools palette → Crop-Tool, ...
Satisfied for the moment, I resized my image and tried to find a suitable crop for my icon.
My own resizing method is a little complicated, it recently has become even more so since I have started to resize things outside of Photoshop, but you can just use whichever method you prefer here. I'm still going to write what I did for this image:
I created a new copy layer by pressing Ctrl → Alt → Shift → E, then I opened up a new empty 100x100 pixel canvas and dragged this copy layer to the new canvas. There, I converted the layer into a Smart Object (Layer → Smart Objects → Convert to Smart Object) and used Free Transform (Ctrl → T) to play around with the size and crop until I found something that I liked.
I looked up the dimensions of the Smart Object layer and resized the whole image from the previous document accordingly by going to Image → Image Size, using bicubic as interpolation method. Then I dragged the copy layer, which now has the right size, from this document into my 100x100 pixel canvas again and deleted the layer with the Smart Object there. (As I said, it's complicated. ;))
The larger document with the original screencap is usually closed without saving then - this is the reason why sometimes some of the first steps are missing in my psd files.
Now, this is what I finally came up with in the end:
4. Color Balance 1
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Color Balance
Now it was time to start working on the coloring. And this was where I couldn't make up my mind, so from now on chaos ensues. I'm just saying it again, so you are thoroughly warned. ;)
First, to add some general color into my image, I used a Color Balance layer and increased the warmer colors in the midtones section by adding some red, green and yellow to them.
For those who have seen my last guide on my icon making process: it's the same principle as I use with the Curves layer there.
5. Photofilter
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Photofilter
I still wanted to make the colors a little warmer, so I added a Photofilter layer with an orange-y color and a density of 25%, which adds a very subtle orange hue to my icon.
6. Color Balance 2
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Color Balance
Now, to disprove everything that I just said about adding warmer colors, I decided to make the coloring a little less yellow - especially his face looked a little sick the way it was. All those warmer colors in the midtones still have their purpose, though. So I added another Color Balance layer, but this time I wanted to change the lighter tones of my image only, so I chose the highlights section and increased the blue value there until the skin color looked a little more healthy and I was a lot more satisfied with the result.
7. Soft Light Layer
Layer → Duplicate Layer
Since the icon was still looking a little flat, I wanted to add some more contrast to it. To do this, I went back to the very first layer in my layer palette (it's actually the one from step 3 where I cropped my image), duplicated this layer and dragged it on top of all the other layers. Then I set the blending mode of it to soft light and the opacity to 70%.
8. Color Fill
Layer → New Fill Layer → Solid Color
The icon was a little dark now, so I wanted to brighten things up. For this, I used a Color Fill layer with a soft peachy color and set the blending mode to soft light. The opacity was left at 100%.
9. Gradient 1
Layer → New Fill Layer → Gradient
I still wasn't satisfied with the coloring, so I started to experiment with gradients a little. I always do this by testing out various selfmade gradients that I have saved in my presets, using the soft light blending mode, and see what my image might benefit from. Here, I finally settled for a greenish-to-transparent gradient set to soft light and at 100% opacity, which mostly added some green to the right side of the icon while not changing the color of his face all too much.
10. Gradient 2
Layer → New Fill Layer → Gradient
Gradients often come in pairs for me, so I added just another one. This time I chose a blue gradient, going from dark blue to middle blue to light blue, set the blending mode again to soft light and left the opacity at 100%. (And there goes my carefully adjusted skin color...)
11. Color Balance 3
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Color Balance
It was not yet quite what I wanted but didn't seem too bad either, so I added another Color Balance layer and tried to improve things.
After that last gradient I used, I had some kind of blue/cyan/green'ish coloring in mind (which is more or less the exact opposite from what I ended up with in the end). I increased the colder tones, cyan and blue plus a little green, in the shadows to make them a little deeper and then balanced things out in the highlights by adding some red and yellow there.
12. Selective Color
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Selective Color
I felt like I was on to something, so I grabbed a Selective Color layer and fiddled around a bit, ending with the settings below. I wanted to make the red a little stronger and warmer, and also enhance the blue and cyan some more, so I worked in the respective channels for these colors.
13. Multiply/Screen/Softlight
Using the Color Fill and Gradient layers in steps 8-10 made the icon lose some of its contrast, so I needed to bring it back again. This time, I made a copy layer ('stamp layer') of everything by pressing Ctrl → Alt → Shift → E and then duplicated this layer two more times. The first one of these three layers was set to multiply and 54% opacity, the second one to screen, 30%, and the third one finally to soft light, 54%.
I could also have used just a single Soft Light layer, but the combination of Multiply/Screen/Soft Light can give some more depth to the image, so I went this more complicated way instead. The opacity is always adjusted individually, the Multiply and Soft Light layer don't have to be all the same like here; the Screen layer will usually always be lower then the other two, though.
14. Texture
I wanted to give some more structure to the background, so I chose a texture (by midnight_road), desaturated it (Image → Adjustments → Desaturate) and placed it on top of my icon.
desaturate →
I set the blending mode to screen and lowered the opacity to 35%. Then I duplicated this layer and set the blending mode of this duplicate to soft light and 100% - I often use this combination of b/w textures set to first screen and then soft light.
The texture was partly covering the face now, which I did not want, so I used a layer mask on both texture layers and masked this area out.
← layer mask, used on both texture layers
15. Color Balance 4
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Color Balance
This finally was the point where I screwed my whole blueish/cyanish coloring business and went a completely different route. I added another Color Balance layer and changed the colors in the shadows to warmer hues again, by adding a lot of red, magenta and yellow.
I wanted the effect of this to be even stronger, so I duplicated this layer one time. This made his face a bit too red, so I used a layer mask to mask this part out a bit.
after the first Color Balance layer
after the second Color Balance layer, using a layer mask
16. Channel Mixer 2
Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Channel Mixer
And finally, I was almost satisfied with everything. I still felt the icon needed a little bit more saturation, though, so I added another Channel Mixer layer with the same settings as in step 2 and set the opacity to 20%. The layer mode was set to saturation.
17. Enhance eye color
Tools palette → Brush tool
Almost done! The one thing left was that I wanted the eye color stand out a tad more, so I created a new, empty layer on top of everything, grabbed the Brush tool, picked a nice and deep blue color and painted carefully over the iris of his eye. Then I set this layer to soft light, 100%.
The eye was still a little too dark, so I duplicated this layer, pulled the duplicate below the soft light layer and set it to screen, 100%.
18. Sharpening
Filter → Other → High Pass
For sharpening, I generally use either the Unsharp Mask, Smart Sharpening or High Pass filter - I don't have any particular reasons for chosing one or the other, I just go to whichever is the first one that comes to my mind, really.
I have also recently taken to sharpen the final png file directly instead of the psd, because creating the png sometimes seems to blur things again. The drawback with that is that I have to guess a little about what I did for this particular icon, but I am fairly sure that I used the High Pass filter method here.
So, assuming that I did, I created another copy layer by pressing Ctrl → Alt → Shift → E, then I went to the High Pass filter and used a radius of 0.3 (this is my standard setting, I rarely if ever change it). I set the blending mode of this layer to soft light and lowered the opacity of it - I don't know the exact percentage, but I suppose it must have been something around 50-60% here.
And that's all. Don't hesitate to call me out on any potential mistakes and ask if you have any further questions. :)